Workspace basics

In Adobe XD CC, you create and manipulate your designs and prototypes using various elements, such as toolbars, and Property Inspector. These elements form the workspace of Adobe XD.

Home screen

When you launch Adobe XD, you see the Home screen.

The Home screen gives you quick access to artboard presets, add-ons, cloud documents, files shared with you, manage links, deleted files, and files stored in your computer. You can also access recently accessed XD files, what's New in XD, learn & support articles, built-in tutorials, and an option to provide product feedback.

Home screen in XD

Add-ons

You can access plug-ins, UI Kits, and app integrations from the Add-onstab on the left pane of the home screen.

Plug-ins extend the functionality of XD by automating complex and repetitive tasks, or integrating external services or applications within the native XD workflow. For more information, see Plug-ins for Adobe XD.

Graphic elements native to various platforms are available in the UI kits. For more information, see Access UI design kits.

App integrations such as JIRA provide a complete solution for designers and stakeholders.

Cloud documents

View the list of cloud documents that you have saved from within XD.

Shared with you

Lists the various cloud documents that other stakeholders have shared with you for review.

Manage links

Manage links directs you to assets.web.com. You can view and access the cloud documents from within the Cloud documents section in the Files menu. You can view the documents in a grid or list view and sort the documents by name or by date of modification or select the documents to delete them.

Deleted

Lists the cloud documents that are tagged to be deleted. You can either restore the files tagged to be deleted or permanently delete them.

Your computer

You can use the computer file picker to access local XD files.

What's new

View a summary of all the latest features that XD offers.

Learn & support

Access the articles on getting started with XD, tutorials, and user guide.

Provide feedback

You can provide feedback regarding any existing bugs, or request any new features on the UserVoice portal.

Artboard presets

Get started with your design by directly clicking one of the preset artboard sizes on the home screen. You can also choose to create a custom artboard size. For more information on artboards, see Working with artboards.

Recent

From the Recent section under the artboard presets, access your most recent XD files.

Begin tutorial

From the Begin Tutorial section next to the artboard presets, access built-in tutorials to learn what you can create with Adobe XD.

Workspace overview

Mac

Includes File, Edit, Object, View, Window, and Help menus and the submenus within them.

Design mode

In Design mode, you can create and design the artboards that make up your project. You can choose to import assets created using other tools or from the web, or create graphics in XD.

Prototype mode

In Prototype mode, you can link artboards together, create video demos of the design (currently only on Mac), prototype your design in a browser or a device, and share the prototype with others and get feedback.

Provides access to the selection tool, drawing tools, text tool, artboard tool, and to the Symbols and Layers panel.

Property Inspector

Using the Property Inspector, you can define various properties of objects and manipulate them using different options. For example, you can specify backgrounds, fills, borders, shadows, alignments, and dimensions of objects. You can also combine objects together to make entirely new objects. To lay out repeating elements, use the Repeat Grid option in the Property Inspector. Use the Fixed Position option to fix the position of multiple elements on scroll. You can also use the math calculation to create designs with greater precision or move objects to a new location or modify its width and height.

Work area

Contains the canvas or artboards with the assets that you create. The pasteboard (the gray space around the artboards) lets you place the work that is in progress and the work that you do not want to include within the existing artboards.

Windows

The XD interface on Windows 10 is similar to the Mac interface except for some minor differences:

On Windows, there are no top-level and Object menus. Simply right-click an object and use the context menu instead.

XD on Windows has a Hamburger menu on the upper-left corner that allows you to create or open files, save, and export assets.